Vector Data Types

Description

The char, unsigned char, short, unsigned
short, integer, unsigned integer, long,
unsigned long, and float vector data types are supported. The
vector data type is defined with the type name i.e. char, uchar,
short, ushort, int, uint,
float, long, or ulong followed by a literal value
n that defines the number of elements in the vector. Supported
values of n are 2, 3, 4, 8, and 16 for all vector data types.

The built-in vector data types are also declared as appropriate types in the OpenCL API
(and header files) that can be used by an application. The following table describes
the built-in vector data type in the OpenCL C programming language and the corresponding
data type available to the application:

Type in OpenCL Language

Description

API type for application

charn

A vector of n 8-bit signed two's complement integer values.

cl_charn

ucharn

A vector of n 8-bit unsigned integer values.

cl_ucharn

shortn

A vector of n 16-bit signed two's complement integer values.

cl_shortn

ushortn

A vector of n 16-bit unsigned integer values.

cl_ushortn

intn

A vector of n 32-bit signed two's complement integer values.

cl_intn

uintn

A vector of n 32-bit unsigned integer values.

cl_uintn

longn

A vector of n 64-bit signed two's complement integer values.

cl_longn

ulongn

A vector of n 64-bit unsigned integer values.

cl_ulongn

floatn

A vector of n 32-bit floating-point values.

cl_floatn

doublen

A vector of n 64-bit floating-point values.

cl_doublen

Notes

Built-in vector data types are supported by the OpenCL implementation even if the
underlying compute device does not support any or all of the vector data types. These
are to be converted by the device compiler to appropriate instructions that use
underlying built-in types supported natively by the compute device.

The double vector type is an optional type that is supported if
CL_DEVICE_DOUBLE_FP_CONFIG for a device is not zero. See
clGetDeviceInfo.

Optional Half Floating Point

The half floating-point is supported as an optional
extension. An application that wants to use half
and halfn will need to include the
#pragma OPENCL EXTENSION cl_khr_fp16
: enable directive. This will extended the list of
built-in vector and scalar data types to include the following:

Type in OpenCL Language

Description

API type for application

half2

A 2-component half-precision floating-point vector.

cl_half2

half3

A 3-component half-precision floating-point vector.

cl_half3

half4

A 4-component half-precision floating-point vector.

cl_half4

half8

An 8-component half-precision floating-point vector.

cl_half8

half16

A 16-component half-precision floating-point vector.

cl_half16

The relational, equality, logical and logical unary operators can be used with
half scalar and halfn
vector types and shall produce a scalar int and vector
shortn result respectively.

The OpenCL compiler accepts an h and H suffix on floating point literals,
indicating the literal is typed as a half.